The Cougars lost that game to Oral Roberts, and not much has gone well for the program since.

Jones and the Cougars hit bottom with an ugly incident during their Dec. 16 loss at Michigan State when Jones engaged in an altercation with a player at halftime, resulting in a university investigation during which Jones was barred from coaching the team.

"There were altercations, and one on campus [after the MSU game]," he said. "We've investigated all parties and made what we think are proper decisions."

So Jones was back on the bench Thursday night for the Cougars' 86-78 loss at Missouri-Kansas City.

"I feel delighted," Jones said before the game. "It was so hard, not being out there with the team for five games and knowing I didn't do anything wrong."

The loss left the Cougars with a record of 5-14 in a season that always appeared to be a challenge and became even more of one in the off-season.

The athletic department relies heavily on the men's basketball team to fund other programs. The team is bringing in approximately $350,000 playing road games. This year, the Cougars play only six of their 29 games at home.

A few weeks after the loss to Oral Roberts in the Mid-Con title game, the school announced it would leave the Mid-Con and try to join another league, which it has yet to do.

The Cougars are not attractive to conferences, partially because of their poor attendance. The Cougars have played two home games so far, drawing 342 fans for a Nov. 2 victory over Wright State and 428 for a New Year's Day loss to New Mexico State.

In addition, construction delays on the new Convocation Center forced the team to play this season in antiquated Dickens Center, which resembles a high school gym. Michigan had agreed to play at the Convocation Center this season. Baskerville now is negotiating with Michigan to come next season.

The program is under duress in other ways, even to the point of raising questions whether it can continue in Division I, another reason conferences may shy away from the Cougars. Although Chicago State has the minimum 14 sports for Division I membership, it has not met NCAA requirements of minimum participation--enough athletes competing in enough events--in recent years. So the NCAA has banned the school's teams from postseason play this school year.

"Chicago State didn't have to withdraw from the Mid-Continent Conference if they had done some of things recommended by the athletic director that [were] consistent with conference rules and regulations as well as NCAA rules and regulations," said Darren Hamilton, CSU's athletic director last year, who is now AD at Eastern Washington.

"Greg LaFleur was not there [as athletic director] more than a year," Hamilton said. "I wasn't there for more than a year. It's not the individual; it has to be the system."

The current system requires the basketball team to play road games against teams from top-level conferences, such as the Big Ten. At Michigan State, it didn't end well, though the Cougars were competitive and lost only 69-61.

At halftime, Jones got into an argument with starting forward Cam-Ron Clay, a 24-year-old native of Maywood and Army veteran who was the Cougars' fourth-leading scorer at 10.9 points per game.

The scene became so disruptive the dispute carried outside the locker room and police restrained Clay, whom Jones promptly kicked off the team. Kevin Jones Jr., the coach's son who also was involved in the ruckus, has not played since because of a back injury.

"[Clay] has a problem with constructive criticism," Jones said after the game. "He got mad and said, `Bleep me,' stood up, took his shirt off and wanted to fight.

"It was a different environment. I'm a former Marine. I have no problem fighting. But this isn't the time, nor place, to be fighting. If he wants to fight, he needs to go back to the Army because we can use a few good men.

"I don't know what his problem is. We're going to make sure that doesn't happen again because he's no longer part of our team. We're here to play basketball and to have fun. To have that kind of disruption at halftime is just uncalled for."

Clay rode back to Chicago in a car with a team trainer instead of on the team bus, a decision Baskerville said he made.

Assistant coach Jason Kent ran the team in Jones' absence. The Cougars won their first game without Jones, 82-77 in overtime at Cleveland State. But they lost their next four, on the road against Wright State, Southern Utah and Valparaiso and at home against New Mexico State.

Without a conference to play in, the Cougars' season ends Feb. 17.

"I'm going to try to find a way to squeeze in 14, 15 wins, which will be tough because we only have four home games [left]," Jones said. "Next year, we won't have this kind of schedule. It'll be a balance [between home and road games]. We have 12 home games scheduled already."